Page 71 of Tainted Obsession 1

No matter his capacity for violence, he won’t allow any harm to come to an innocent woman like Evelyn. He approved of mychoice to defend her from the very beginning. When I found her in that basement and killed his rogue men to save her, he thanked me for ending them.

The fearsome drug lord will keep my fragile little butterfly safe while I deal with this clusterfuck.

I kiss Evelyn’s chilled cheek and entrust her to his care. He steers her away from me, toward the exit.

“What will you do now?” Adrián asks, eyes sparking with curiosity.

“I’m going to find out which motherfucker put her up for auction.”

“And then?”

“I’ll make the man scream. And the bastard who announced the auction. And every piece of shit who dared to bid on her.”

Adrián nods, his cruelly handsome features twisting into a terrible grin. “Mateo and I would love to help.”

A lot of blood is about to be spilled, and I won’t deny the sadist his due.

I check the exit, catching a final flash of Evelyn’s platinum hair as she’s led away from the impending violence.

She’ll be safe back at the mansion. I’ll do whatever is necessary to hide the darkest aspects of my world from her. I regret that she witnessed the disgusting scene here tonight, but I still wouldn’t change my decision to bring her with me.

Even now, having her out of my sight irritates me like an itch beneath my skin.

“Weapon of choice?” Adrián asks smoothly.

“Knife,” I grunt in reply, distracted by thoughts of Evelyn.

“Excellent.” A blade appears in my hand.

The familiar weight is reassuring. I learned to fight with knives during my youth inLe Vele. Guns are good, too, but a knife is more personal. A gun puts a man down without a fight. A knife lets me feel their blood on my hands. I don’t revel in theirpain like sadistic Adrián, but there’s something honest about ending a man with a blade.

And I’ll get to watch the light leave my enemies’ eyes as I make them pay for what they’ve done to that innocent girl. I don’t get off on violence, but I relish justice. My retribution will be swift and bloody, and then I can return to my sweet Evelyn.

Chapter 28

Evelyn

My stomach churns so violently that I might be sick. I swallow against the burn at the back of my throat and blink rapidly to hold the tears at bay.

The man who just dismissed me after that horrific auction is a stranger to me. Massimo barely even looked at me when he handed me off to his drug lord friend, Stefano.

If I hadn’t seen the awful events with my own eyes, I wouldn’t believe them.

Massimo bid on the right to take an unwilling woman’s virginity. He bought her body right in front of me.

The diamond necklace becomes an iron weight around my neck, a shackle.

I debased myself for him. I eagerly welcomed him into my body.

I’ve been an idiot to think I have some sort of hold over him.

The cold, hard fact is that he stalked me. And even though I willingly fled from cartel violence when I got on that motorcycle with him, he abducted me against my will.

So many times, I’ve said that I don’t want to be part of his criminal world. I’ve told him that I just want to go home to America.

But he kept me, regardless of my wishes. I thought it was because he cared about me as deeply as I cared for him, but if that were true, he wouldn’t be capable of betraying me like this.

Pain knifes through my chest, increasing my nausea as I stumble deeper into the empty mansion. Stefano left me as soon as I locked the door behind me. He promised that no one would dare to cross the threshold, and then he excused himself so he could go back to the club.